San Francisco bans cat declawing; Texas A&M weighs in

I wanted to share with you a press release I got from Texas A & M regarding the City of San Francisco’s decision to ban the declawing of cats in their city. I am not a fan of declawing. I witnessed the surgery 25 years ago while working in a vet’s office and it’s dreadful. I would assume it’s painful to the cat and there must be some sort of psychological impact too on having the tips of your toes removed.

The veterinary community needs to take a stand on the issue and either ban it or provide stricter guidelines so that the surgery is not mainstream anymore. Cats naturally scratch — that’s part of being a cat — and potential feline owners need to be better educated before getting a cat because there are people who get the surgery for their feline long before there is ever a problem with scratching — and that should not be allowed.

Read the Texas A&M response to San Francisco’s law and share your thoughts.

COLLEGE STATION, Nov. 23, 2009 – Having your feline declawed could be cat-astrophic – both to your checkbook and to your pet’s health if a current California trend sweeps across the country, contends a Texas A&M University animal behavior authority who is a past president of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

The city of San Francisco recently outlawed the veterinary procedure, and California cities Santa Monica, Berkeley and Beverly Hills have also banned the practice, with Los Angeles expected to outlaw cat declawing in the next few days. In those cities that have banned the practice, anyone caught having his or her cat declawed could face a $1,000 fine and a jail sentence of six months if convicted.

At least 20 countries have outlawed the practice, including Australia, Japan, Brazil, Israel, the United Kingdom and most of Europe. Since California often sets trends that eventually are accepted by the rest of the country, it’s a matter that Texas pet owners should pay close attention to, says Dr. Bonnie Beaver, a nationally known animal behavior authority at Texas A&M whose specialty is animal behavior, but she says she understands the rationale for both sides of the issue.

“Declawing a cat has both positive and negative considerations,” says Beaver, a professor in the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences.

“In some cases where the cat is destroying the inside of a home and retraining it to use a scratching post has not worked, or when it lives with a severely immunocompromised person, the decision becomes one of either declawing the cat or having to euthanize it,” she notes. “Declawing is a veterinary procedure and like other such procedures, the decision of whether to declaw should be made by a well-informed owner in consultation with his or her veterinarian.”

City leaders in San Francisco, in defending their decision, call cat declawing “a form of animal cruelty,” adding that “it’s a form of amputation and it renders the cat defenseless if attacked.”

Beaver says the negatives of declawing include the pain the animal endures after the procedure, noting it is the equivalent of removing the bone in the tip of each finger, and it might affect the animal’s walking ability.

Also, after declawing, some cats find it more painful to use a litter box appropriately, she says, and owners may fail to take the time and effort to train their cats to use the scratching pad. In addition, she says declawed cats are often defenseless in attacks by other animals.

Positives include a smaller chance of serious infections from cats that claw their owners, and it decreases the seriousness of aggression toward owners or animals in the household, the Texas A&M veterinarian notes. Also, it stops damage to furniture so the owner is less likely to abandon it on the street or euthanize the animal, and she says declawed cats can still climb trees and are also adept at finding hiding spots to avoid potential predators.

“It is true that declawed cats are defenseless in attacks and almost always are indoor cats or should be,” Beaver notes, “and they should not be fighting anyway or be attacked by dogs, raccoons or other animals.

“Again, there are positives and negatives to this issue, and it’s something that owners should discuss with their veterinarians before coming to a decision,” she concludes.

Cathy M. Rosenthal

5 Responses

Hmmmm…I do recall seeing a lot of declawed cats at the shelter. Your litter box theory sounds valid. I imagine scratching at the litter feels different for declawed cats and can imagine them developing litter box problems. I wonder though if that more of them are at shelters because the owners are generally less tolerant of feline behaviors. I think a lot of declawing is performed long before there is ever a problem with a cat. I know someone recently who got their cat declawed and the cat wasn’t even scratching anything — he just wanted to prevent anything from happening.

Thanks for sharing your story. Through my years working at shelters, I often felt it was better for a cat to have this surgery than to be relinquished to a shelter. Especially if the pet owner had tried numerous things beforehand, which it sounds like your son did, and could not find a remedy.

Cathy – I’m not a cat person, but our son and dil have two – that were both (both males) rescued at different times, from the streets. Despite countless ‘elaborate’ scratching posts, cheap scratching pads, etc., these two were systematically destroying the contents of their home. These two have always been indoor cats and they made the decision to declaw (front) both. So the two cats, rescued from the streets, now pampered and well cared for, had this procedure, which isn’t without costs, are now declawed and doing great. They weren’t just pitched back onto the streets out of anger or frustration.

The frustration factor over the damages being done has been negated, and the cats will continue to enrich the lives of their family for many years to come. I know this procedure is controversial…just wanted to post about these two and how much better life in their home became for all, when they could no longer destroy items with their claws.

Having the guidance of a well qualified vet and clinic staff made the recovery from this, as painless as possible for both the cats and their people. I think my son’s only regret, was not looking into this sooner, so that he and his cats could get on with enjoying one another sooner, but he wanted to ‘try’ and accomodate their need to ‘scratch’ on appropriate items…..which proved fruitless in the end.

About the Author

Cathy M. Rosenthal has more than 25 years of experience in public relations, communications and humane education in the animal welfare field. She has worked for local humane societies and national humane groups, appearing on hundreds of television and radio news and public affairs programs to address animal issues. She currently is a consultant for local and national animal welfare organizations, writing grants, annual reports and other marketing materials. She is also the author of several children's books about animals.